We conduct a randomized experiment that generates exogenous variation in the access to foreign markets for rug producers in Egypt. Combined with detailed survey data, we causally identify the impact of exporting on firm performance. Treatment firms report 16–26% higher profits and exhibit large improvements in quality alongside reductions in output per hour relative to control firms. These findings do not simply reflect firms being offered higher margins to manufacture high-quality products that take longer to produce. Instead, we find evidence of learning-by-exporting whereby exporting improves technical efficiency. First, treatment firms have higher productivity and quality after controlling for rug specifications. Second, when asked to produce an identical domestic rug using the same inputs and same capital equipment, treatment firms produce higher quality rugs despite no difference in production time. Third, treatment firms exhibit learning curves over time. Finally, we document knowledge transfers with quality increasing most along the specific dimensions that the knowledge pertained to.

We conduct a randomized experiment that generates exogenous variation in the access to foreign markets for rug producers in Egypt. Combined with detailed survey data, we causally identify the impact of exporting on firm performance. Treatment firms report 16-26 percent higher profits and exhibit large improvements in quality alongside reductions in output per hour relative to control firms. These findings do not simply reflect firms being offered higher margins to manufacture high-quality products that take longer to produce. Instead, we find evidence of learning-byexporting whereby exporting improves technical efficiency. First, treatment firms have higher productivity and quality after controlling for rug specifications. Second, when asked to produce an identical domestic rug using the same inputs and same capital equipment, treatment firms produce higher quality rugs despite no difference in production time. Third, treatment firms exhibit learning curves over time. Finally, we document knowledge transfers with quality increasing most along the specific dimensions that the knowledge pertained to.

The risk of developing malignancy is higher in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection than in non-HIV-infected patients. Several factors including immunosuppression, viral coinfection, and high-risk lifestyle choices lead to higher rates of cancer in the HIV-infected population. A subset of HIV-related malignancies are considered to be acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-defining malignancies, as their presence confirms the diagnosis of AIDS in an HIV-infected patient. The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has led to a significant drop in the rate of AIDS-defining malignancies, including Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and invasive cervical carcinoma. However, non-AIDS-defining malignancies (eg, Hodgkin lymphoma, lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and head and neck cancers) now account for an increasing number of cancer cases diagnosed in HIV-infected patients. Although the number has decreased, AIDS-defining malignancies account for 15%-19% of all deaths in HIV-infected patients in the post-HAART era. Most HIVrelated malignancies in HIV-infected patients manifest at an earlier age with a more aggressive course than that of non-HIV-related malignancies. Understanding common HIV-related malignancies and their specific imaging features is crucial for making an accurate and early diagnosis, which impacts management. Owing to the weakened immune system of HIV-infected patients, other entities such as various infections, particularly opportunistic infections, are prevalent in these patients. These processes can have confounding clinical and imaging manifestations that mimic malignancy. This article reviews the most common AIDS-defining and non-AIDS-defining malignancies, the role of imaging in their diagnosis, and the imaging mimics of malignancies in HIV-infected patients. ©

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have continued to grow over the past few decades, both in numbers of clients and portfolio sizes. The growth of these MFIs has enabled greater access to credit in many of the world's less developed nations. However, recent studies have shown that very many of the poor -especially Muslims -remain unbanked, and many who have access to banks remain credit constrained. Confounding this problem in many Muslim countries is the poor's propensity to reject microfinance, when available, on religious grounds. In this paper we propose an alternative microfinance model built on the familiar rotating savings and credit association (RoSCA) model that is Islamically accepted, and test its performance against sequential Grameen-style microcredit provision in a "laboratory experiment in the field" conducted in poor Egyptian villages. Our model of bank-insured RoSCAs is shown to solve coordination-failure problems that may otherwise prevent the spontaneous development of informal RoSCAs in practice. Empirically, our guaranteed-RoSCA model generated significantly higher takeup and repayment rates than the Grameen model, suggesting that this model can be a useful alternative for Islamic countries where many of the poor have rejected conventional modes of microfinance.

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